the daydream fund challenge thread

Winged_one

I'd love a spot of rain too!! The rain butt at home is empty since yesterday, and the plants on the plot hvaen't seen wet stuff in about 8-9 days now. The plot is too far from the tap to bring water to everything, so I dumped a couple of cans on the newly planted cabbages, leeks and perpetual spinach, and the remainder on the potatoes. But the squash bed and the peas/beans could really do with some too. But we are harvesting potatoes - had 2 meals worth (as boiled one night, and remainders as salad last night) from 2 plants. And I have enough lettuce for a week of salads!

Sorted the savings accounts too. Going to use my existing account for another 5 months, and use the lump in there to put a grand away into a new reg saver monthly until used up. Then revert to a slightly lower amount - although I think more than I currently do (as the monthly gets more interest than Credit union, so will reduce salary sacrifice temporarily, to bring up regular savings instead). If that makes sense (sorry, not enough caffeine this morning yet).

It looks as though one of our hopes for longer term options is dying a death - BIL was doing nothing about the house he'd planned next to MIL, but with almost no time left to build it before PP runs out, he is causing strife everywhere trying to make sure PIL "won't be overlooked" by gawking tourists by moving their terrace to other side of house (eh - more like gawking DIL!), and grousing about a water outlet pipe that runs from PIL house across the site that he will be building on - costs v little to sort and he is getting site for FREE!! (And PIL had put off sorting septic tank for over 7 years because he was building and had agreed to put in system to cover both houses - now grousing about that but the old system is SOOOO far gone beyond what is reasonable, it's dreadful.). Sorry, but we have all been waiting forever for minds to be made up, and DH, I, FIL and MIL had all been talking for the past year about what WE (DH and I) needed to do to sort the issues when WE build something there (only room for 1 building). Grrrrrrrr.

Sorry, monday moan done and I need to do some work to earn the money for our dreams....Have a lovely week with all the sunshine to grow things - green or otherwise!!

Butterflymind

Hello all

I love dipping into this forum/thread. Great pictures, and it's firing up my self-sufficiency urges...

Davesnave: you make me feel like a wimp! I 'only' have 2 gardens to cope with. Well, and a job, housework, finances, cooking, looking out for elderly neighbours, laundry, ... I'll stop there.

CTC: so sorry to hear about you losing a chick, it's really sad. We were really worked up when we had 3 blue tits fledging in our garden and the neighbours cats were prowling. I think I will have to toughen up a lot more if we get ever get to raise livestock. I did see one fledgling come back to drink from our pond BTW, no sign of chewed feathers so hope that's good news.

Everyone else - do keep posting, I love to hear how you are all progressing.

I have finally made the decision to begin saving properly for the DDCF not just 'loose change', hopefully using all the MSE tips especially on 'Old style' MSE, & 'Up your income' as I am fed up with buying yet another plant and trying to shoehorn it in somewhere (from car boot!).

I'll try not to bore everyone, and remember to update my sig. I am looking for a second job at probably the worst time, but, willing to do anything within reasonable limits. Tell me off if it's boring.

Cropping now on radishes, lettuces, chard, spinach beet, nasturiums (leaves/flowers, try it you might like the peppery taste!), herbs galore, toms are slow to ripen, and Q has turned up it's toes...!

BM

ETA: By the way, £300,000 was settled on as a minimum for a place with a bit of land very unscientifically, a house with 3 acres backing onto a motorway and delightfully edged by a huge sub-station near an industrial estate has just sold for £340,000 near us! So, if we sell ours we might, just might, afford something with land... By the time I retire I could get there.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

BM...

no way are your posts boring.....I had my turning point, when i started this thread....before then i had been dreaming for years... ok i might not get there... due to finances, but i am going to have a dam good go:beer:

I havent updated my sig in yonks... last week i decided not to credit card hop from 0% to 0%, and paid off the balance of over 3.5k:T ok this was out of my daydream fund, but now the only credit card we have is making us money..... with the cashabck.. and paying it off a few days after we have spent on it....:money:

so now i have around the 10k mark, which might only seem like a tiny amount compared to the prices of the smallholdings... but its MY 10k and i wouldnt have made/saved that if it wasnt for people on here ( and another forum) just talking and showing pictures of how they are doing etc....

so even if you make £1 on something.... or grow a different type of plant etc.... we all want to know about it:rotfl:as thats what keeps us focused...:beer:

Davesnave

I totally agree with CTC, no one's posts on here are boring (though I'd like more photos of....well, anything really...I did some nice ones of lettuce last week, but I was lucky enough to have some slightly sexier tractors in the field! :rotfl:)

Far from being a 'wimp,' BM, you're probably doing a lot more than I am. In fact, by the sound of it, you're involved in all the stuff I was into a few years ago.... My life is laid-back luxury now!

Anyway, just popped in to say that, bearing in mind a certain person may be raising VAT tomorrow, I have bought a polytunnel from those nice people at First Tunnels. They were willing to do a similarly nice deal, which is more than I expect from Jacksons Fencing when I try a similar ploy tomorrow, but you never know. Those that don't ask and all that!

That's an impressive total CTC and the CC payoff will pay back too. Well worth it.

meanmarie

No money going into fund at present, one of the sons is finding it very difficult to meet his mortgage repayments and clutch just went in their car....almost €1000 to fix, so trying to give them a help out....they used to have highly paid jobs due to lots of overtime, but now are only barely keeping the bills paid, even though he now works Friday and Saturday nights as well as all week...more important that they are ok than that I have my conservatory for plants I think.

Tomatoes are coming on very well, as are beans and potatoes, we are also having salads everyday and the spinach and chard provides veg at least twice a week. Pleased to see that my red currants are almost ripe, going to make some jelly in a week or so...love it. Everything seems to be cropping well so am happy about that, love some nice fresh veg, worth the work.

Marie

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

I totally agree with CTC, no one's posts on here are boring (though I'd like more photos of....well, anything really...I did some nice ones of lettuce last week, but I was lucky enough to have some slightly sexier tractors in the field! :rotfl:)

I agree....I enjoy all posts.

Davesnave when I'm all set up I'll try and take photos. Goodness knows I'm going to be asking your advice often (ATM I'm obsessed with pleaching....I need a high screen, but can't decide what. Would prefer something...well...that isn't conifer but considering my love for dressing as nature intended I'm struggling to think of something that will thicken up by the time its warm enough for me to ni across the garden scantily glad in the morning:o )

Davesnave

That's a shame for you, marie, but I know how it is; something similar has happened to us recently. So you aren't mean after all!;)
Lir, I'd suggest hornbeam. Keeps some of its leaves in winter, but maybe you'll need to keep a few of yours too, for a year or two, till it all gets established! :rotfl:

mama67

We have been enjoying lettuce and salad leaves for a couple of weeks now, will be having our first of many, by the looks of it ,cucumber tonight.

The tomatoes have all now got lots of flowers on and a couple have small fruits as well; even the extra tomatoes we planted outside have flower buds so this will be good, for freezing any excess.We have been feeding these once a week since the flowers came in.

The green beans are gradually climbing their supports although there are no flowers at present (these are digin seeds).

And the leeks and sprout plants seem to be settling in well.

At present I can't see ant flowers/fruits appearing on either the butternut squash or courgette but hopefully these will do so later.

ukmaggie45

It's a while since I had time to post - mainly too busy in the garden! We did have a weekend away at the caravan a couple of weeks ago, and arrived home Sunday evening to find we'd been burgled. :mad: Took the HD TV and some small bits of jewellery, not on the whole expensive bits other than the gold watch my Grandmother left me. So spent a week mostly speaking to police and insurance loss adjuster. Have a telephone interview booked for Friday to get the jewellery (nearly all costume jewellery) valued.

Anyway, in response to requests for pictures I thought I'd post my first harvest.

First garlic



First produce from garden



OH sliced and sauteed the above in a little butter to give us the first meal from garden. And very yummy it was too!



As you can see from the photo of me above I'm no spring chicken - 61, will be 62 the end of August. Finally claiming my pension after being on Incapacity Benefit since 1992 (I am quite disabled with ME/CFS), am so relieved I won't have the stress of going for the new medical assessment. OH is coming up to 65, he works 3 days a week (took shorter week mainly to help me out as am not robust enough to do much stuff for myself) and may stay on after 65 depending on how DD is coping with the twin boys she had in May.

We've put in for planning permission to extend the new (to us) house, which we should hear about sometime in July I think. Not sure how we'll raise all the cash we need yet... We're still living in our old house, and don't feel able to market it until we can finally move into the new one. If I was fit and healthy it would be different, but as things are I wouldn't be able to cope living in the new house while work goes on (as an example the whole of the concrete ground floor has to be taken up and relaid! :eek: )

We're horrible behind on the gardening front, am hoping to get some tomatoes planted this afternoon, trying a sort of ring culture on 4 of them (the home breeding vine ones from Real Seeds). And maybe furtle some of the spuds - have grown ridiculous amounts given the size of the veg patch - I'm a sucker for potato adverts!

Courgette and squash are patiently waiting to be planted too. Need to put in more peas and beans as well, the first ones were rather straggly when they finally got planted as the weather was too horrid to get them in. I'll sow direct now it's finally warmer.

I'm beginning to think about what to grow next year already! Fewer onions and more shallots I think. Might think of reducing the lawn area for spuds, not sure what OH will think to that though - think he's looking forward to football games with 2 small boys!

Will try and get some pics of our spuds and sweetcorn if there's time this afternoon.

Butterflymind

Thanks all

Your support is appreciated. I know these are tough times but this will give us both something positive to look forward too, as work is dire at the moment...

Davesnave: Thanks, I don't think we could even squeak in a mini digger which would have been well handy when digging out the pond, patio and moving soil for raised beds!

CTC: Your thread is inspiring me to go for it! Might not get there - who knows, but at least I am now thinking seriously of aiming for it. I figure that I never thought I'd pay off our mortgage 14/15 years before the end of the 25 year term, and it was really tough going. Now I feel I'm over that and looking for the next challenge. As I don't want another mortgage, I am wondering if we could actually save up for that extra bit of land I crave...

UKMaggie45: I love your photo's, your garden looks twice as big as ours! I must get more IT literate and figure out how to put photo's on here.

I harvested 3 strawberries and 1 tomato yesterday. :jSmall, but, ooh, you can actually really taste it. So much better than that supermarket stuff which is goodness knows how many days old, sprayed with god knows what, and travelled from everywhere.

BM

BTW - sorry to hear about the burglary - I hope you get everything sorted out. Doesn't help get back what you've lost, but some compensation....:(